The Prospects of Industrial Civilization.

1959. London, G. Allen & Unwin, (1959). 8vo. Orig. full cloth in orig. dust jacket. Internally fine. 283 pp. Second edition.Besides his philosophical work - both his in-depth analysis of the logically principles of mathematics and his more popular attempts to make philosophy understandable for a broader audience - Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was, in his whole life, a dedicated voice about social matters. The present book - written in collaboration with one of Russell's many wives, Dora Russell (1894-1986) - is an example of this engagement, being printed first in 1923 and again in 1959. In the Preface Russell writes: "Especially relevant to the present-day problems is the book's contention that industrial organization, by its nature, gives rise to oligarchy or dictatorship, thus tending to destroy democracy as traditionally understood, and to impose upon the individual pressures and restraints that prevent his full life as a human being, thus leading to trivial pursuits and passivity combined with collective rage and hysteria".